All the native animals living in our red gum trees
1. Musk lorikeets
Glossopsitta concinna
Collecting pollen and nectar from red gum flowers using their specialised brush-tipped tongues, these lorikeets also eat seeds, fruits and insects.
(Image Credit: JJ Harrison)
2. Brown thornbills
Acanthiza pusilla
These small birds, 9-10cm in length, eat insects, particularly psyllids (see leaf close-up).
(Image Credit: Glen Fergus)
3. Superb parrots
Polytelis swainsonii
Vulnerable nationally — just a few thousand remain.
(Image Credit: Ron Knight)
4. Squirrel gliders
Petaurus norfolcensis
These marsupials feed on sap that drips from notches they nibble into the bark of gum trees.
(Image Credit: Brsibane City Council)
5. Red gum lerp psyllids
Glycaspis brimblecombei
These small sap-sucking insects create white conical shelters of wax and sugar called ‘lerps’ in their juvenile stages. These covers help conceal the psyllids while they feed on leaves.
(Image Credit: Scot Nelson)
6. Gumleaf skeletoniser caterpillars
Uraba lugens
They voraciously consume fresh green red gum foliage, leaving a lacy lattice of oil cells and veins; they can strip whole stands in summer and spring.
(Image Credit: John Tann)
7. Green grocer cicadas
Cyclochila australasiae
Juvenile nymphs live in the soil for up to seven years, sucking sap from tree roots. They emerge as adults in spring, lay eggs in dead or dying branches and then die themselves within six weeks.
(Image Credit: Wikimedia)
8. Lesser long-eared bats
Nyctophilus geoffroyi
Nocturnal dwellers of cracks and hollow limbs.
(Image Credit: Wikimedia)
9. Bardi grubs
Trictena atripalpis
These live in tunnels below ground, feeding on tree roots. They emerge as adult moths to lay up to 45,000 eggs on a tree, more than any other non-social insect.
(Image Credit: Don Herbison-Evans)
10. Azure kingfishers
Alcedo azurea
These pretty birds dig nests around red gum roots.
(Image Credit: John Hill)
11. Murray cod
Maccullochella peelii
Our largest freshwater fish, they are endangered nationally. Most are found within lm of a gum snag.
(Image Credit: Murray cod)
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